


Naughty or Nice

by Norberts_Mom



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Party, F/M, Ugly Holiday Sweaters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:09:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21875692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Norberts_Mom/pseuds/Norberts_Mom
Summary: Holiday meet cute Katniss meets Peeta at the ugly sweater holiday party. She falls for him after they bond over a classic holiday movie, March of The Wooden Soldiers.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 23
Kudos: 63
Collections: The Hunger Games 2019 Season of Hope Holiday Gift Exchange





	Naughty or Nice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MegaAuLover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaAuLover/gifts).



After a long day at work I’m not looking forward to the small talk I will have to endure at the Christmas party Prim is dragging me to at the Mayor’s mansion. Technically, the invitation was addressed to me, since Madge Undersee, our new mayor, is my friend from school. If only I was able to hide the invitation from Prim’s prying eye, I would have politely declined with some lame excuse and stayed at home to watch holiday movies. 

I shake the falling snow from my hair as I walk up the driveway to the house. Prim attacks me as soon as I walk inside.

“Katniss, you’re going to love the Christmas sweaters I got us for the party tonight!”

“First, let me get my coat off, little duck,” I say as I close the door behind me. She’s practically jumping up and down as I unbutton my coat. She grabs it from me and hangs it up before pulling me into my bedroom. There on my bed are a pair of matching, overly decorated Christmas sweaters; one with the word Nice in script letters, and another with the word Naughty.

“Do you like them?” she asks, clearing hoping I do. 

I don’t want to hurt her feelings, seeing how excited she is about them. “Sure, Prim,” I hedge, “but I was planning on wearing my toy soldier sweater like I always do.”  
“Come on, Katniss,” she whines, “You wear that sweater every year. It’s time you got a new one. Besides, that sweater is too cute. It’s an ugly Christmas Sweater party. You can wear your toy soldier sweater on Christmas day, how’s that?”

I grumble, but Prim knows I can’t deny her anything. “Ok, little duck. You win. Which one is mine?”

Prim hugs me in a tight bear hug before pulling away and grabbing the Naughty sweater and holding it out to me. “You have to be Naughty. They only had the one left and it’s your size. Besides,” she says as she holds the Nice sweater up in front of herself and starts backing out of the door, “I’m the nice one.” 

She runs out of my room before I can say anything else, slamming her bedroom door. I can hear her cackling behind the closed door. “Hurry up and change, Katniss,” she yells. “We don’t want to be late.”

The snow if falling much heavier than it had been when I got home. I have to clean off the car before we can get going. 

Once the car is started, Prim’s phone syncs up with my car stereo and she gets her Christmas playlist going as soon as she gets here seatbelt fastened. The drive is slow going because of all of the snow. 

We’re in the middle of singing a duet of Mary Did You Know? when we finally pull into the driveway for the Mayor’s Mansion. The driveway is decorated in festive red and green lights that sparkle under the falling snow. 

The attendant at the door takes our coats. As we’re walking into the main ballroom where the party is being held, Prim stops and pulls out her phone and starts reading. Apparently, she got an alert I didn’t hear over the noise of the party. 

Prim is a newly minted nurse, and while she has the night off, she’s always on call if anything major happens. “Oh, no. I have to go into work. There’s been a pile up on the freeway.” 

“Okay. Let’s get our coats and I’ll drive you there.” We turn around to go back to the coat check room. 

Prim is texting a reply as we walk when a woman with blond curly hair comes rushing toward us. The buttons on her coat half unbuttoned. “Prim,” she says, “You got the text, too?”

“Yes, I did,” Prim answers. “Delly, you remember my sister Katniss, from school, right?” 

And now that I get a good look at the woman, I realize it’s Delly Cartwright. She and I went to school together from kindergarten all the way through high school.  
“Oh, hi Katniss,” Delly greets me with a big smile and a quick, awkward hug. She starts talking again before I can return the greeting. “Your sister is a great addition to our staff at Panem General. I’m so glad you and Prim decided to move back home to District 12. So many people have really missed you.” I contemplate who should could possible mean when she turns back to Prim and asks, “Do you want to ride with me to the hospital? That way Katniss can stay and enjoy herself.” Delly turns and gives me a wink that I can’t decipher. 

“That would be great, Delly,” Prim says before turning to me. “You stay and have fun. No leaving as soon as we do. Go talk to Madge, make some new friends.”

“Sure thing, Prim,” I say and she looks at me suspiciously. “Go, people need you,” I tell her and they both rush off to get Prim’s coat, leaving me standing alone in the foyer.

I’m still facing the front of the house, debating whether it would be rude to leave without even saying hi to Madge, Prim would never know, when I hear someone clearing his throat behind me. I turn around and find myself face to face with the bluest eyes I have ever seen. Eyes that used to flit away from me in class and in the halls at school. Eyes I haven’t seen since I graduated and moved away for college. Eyes of one Peeta Mellark. I wonder if he remembers me.

“Hey, Katniss,” he says hesitantly.

Well, that answers that question. “Hi, Peeta,” I answer and he smiles. 

“It looks like we’re a matched set.” He must see my confusion on my face because he plucks the fabric of his sweater near the neckline and I see what he means. His sweater is very similar to Prim’s with the word Nice across his broad chest. 

Yes, it is.

“I guess these sweaters aren’t as unique as Prim thought they would be,” I tell him as I look down at my own sweater, the word Naughty taunting me. I’m anything but.  
“Hey, these sweaters are high fashion,” Peeta says with a chuckle. 

God, I love his laugh. I thought he was handsome in high school. He seemed to be friendly with everyone, but he never talked to me. He would look away whenever I happened to make eye contact. Surely, he has a girlfriend or wife by now, it’s been nearly 10 years since I left District 12.

“Since both our dates left to save the world, you think we could hang around together at this party?” 

I nod and follow him into the ballroom, just a little heart broken. Of course, he is with Delly. That’s why he was in the foyer just now, seeing her off. Stupid of me to get my hopes up. What are the chances of Peeta Mellark being interested in someone like me? Oh well, at least I’ll have someone I vaguely know to talk to until I get a chance to catch up with Madge. And I can tell Prim I didn’t leave as soon as she did. That will make her happy. I decide to make the most of my time with Peeta, maybe we can be friends.

The ballroom is decorated like a fairy tale. Fake snow and glittering lights everywhere. There are toy soldiers standing guard against the walls every ten feet or so.  
“You know my original sweater would have fit in nicely with the theme of this party. I have a toy soldier sweater that I wear every year. Prim convinced me to wear this one instead, but now I’m thinking I made the wrong choice.”

“That’s different. Why a toy soldier?” Peeta asks as we make our way across the room, stopping at different tables, picking up food as we go.

“My favorite holiday movie is March of the Wooden Soldiers. When I was little, my dad and I had matching toy soldier sweaters. We would pretend to be the toy soldiers from the movie and save my mom and little Prim from the Bogeymen. After he passed, I continued to wear my sweater every Christmas in his honor. When I grew out of my sweater, my mom had dad’s sweater resized to fit me and I’ve been wearing it every year since.” 

“That’s a sweet story, Katniss,” Peeta tells me. “I’d let you protect me from the Bogeymen, too.”

I’m confused by his sentiment, but I guess he’s trying to be supportive, so I let his comment pass. 

We find a comfortable spot to stand next to one of the toy soldiers that’s out of the way. As soon as we stop, a server approaches and asks for our drink choices. I order a soda and Peeta follows suit.

After our drinks arrive, Peeta asks me what brings me back to District 12. “You left pretty much right after graduation,” he says and I’m surprised he noticed.

I swallow down the cracker I was chewing and I start to tell him about my time in District 7. I got my degree in forestry management there then I moved with mom and Prim to District 4, where Prim went to nursing school and mom took a job at the teaching hospital. I went to the police academy in District 4 and became a park ranger there, but I missed my woods. When Prim graduated nursing school, she worked at the hospital there, but after about a year she told me she missed District 12 too, so we decided to move back home. Mom stayed in District 4. Prim works with Delly at the hospital, and I got a job here as a park ranger.

“What do you do as a park ranger?” Peeta asks.

“I’m basically a cop whose beat is the forest,” I tell him. 

“Do you have handcuffs?”

“Of course.”

“Yeah?” Peeta asks with a little too much enthusiasm.

“Well, not on me,” I laugh, “They are on my utility belt with my uniform, hanging in my closet.”

“So, you walk around arresting people in the woods?”

“Well, no,” I laugh again, “I mostly check the trails after a storm for any new obstructions. I respond to calls about injured animals and take them to the rehabilitation center for care. I lead hikes, and give lectures about conservation and show some of the animals from the rehab center that can’t be returned to the wild.”  
“Wow, I’m surprised you talk in front of people like that. You were always so quiet in school. I remember barely being able to hear you speak when you had to give a book report or a speech.”

“Yeah, well I can be quite vocal when I’m passionate about something,” I tell him. Peeta’s eyes darken and my cheeks grow warm as I realized what I said.  
Peeta clears his throat and says, “That’s good to know.” Then winks. 

I have to look away in my embarrassment and mentally kick myself. The word I meant was verbose. I should correct myself, but decide to change the subject instead. “So, what have you been up to since high school?” I ask before popping another yummy morsel in my mouth. The food here is great, and the servers keep coming around with tray after tray of decadent food. 

Peeta explains how he studied culinary arts and tried to get his dad to expand the bakery after he graduated. “The most he would do is add a coffee bar, which has brought in more business, but I wanted to put my degree to use. I used to delivery bread and pastries to Greasy Sae’s Café. We would get to talking when I’d stop by, so she knew my ambition. When she decided to retire, she sold me a controlling interest in the business. We remodeled the café and turned it into Sae’s Bistro. They layout is basically the same, with updated paint and new tables and chairs. We still have burgers and chicken fingers for the kids, but now our main offering is gourmet sandwiches.” 

“What about Sae’s granddaughter, Emily?” I ask, remembering the quiet little girl who would sit behind the counter rolling silverware into napkins while Sae would cook and serve.

“That was one of the conditions if the sale, actually, that I keep on Emily as an employee. She practically grew up there. It’s her legacy. Sae brought on a caregiver for Emily, and Sae still comes in a few days a week, so Emily isn’t surrounded by strangers. She knows the crew and she’s comfortable with everyone. Once she was old enough to work, Emily became the dishwasher. She loves water and she’s very meticulous about getting the dishes clean. She has her routine and I leave her to it.  
“I used to think she couldn’t talk, but I found out she only talks when she wants or needs something. Instead of asking for a certain item, she’ll say, ‘I like spaghetti’ or ‘cheese-buns are good.’ I’ve learned that means that’s what she wants.” 

“Emily has great taste. Cheese-buns were always my favorite,” I tell him. He’s so sweet to have made the accommodations needed to keep Emily on.

“I knew that,” Peeta says, and I wonder how. “You used to always order one with a hot chocolate when you and your dad would stop in on Saturday mornings.  
I remember those days, spending time in the woods with my dad, just hiking and exploring. Then we’d stop at Mellark’s Bakery for a treat before heading home. That’s where I got my love for the woods. After my father passed, I stopped going for a while. I was afraid the woods would feel too lonely without him there, but then I went on my own and realized I felt closer to my dad, even though I was alone. It was as if a part of him lived on there. That’s why I chose the major that I did. I wanted to preserve our woods, and all forests, really, so they would always be there to remember him. 

“That’s right,” I tell him, “You have a remarkable memory.”

Peeta blushes and steps closer. “I remember everything about you,” he says, barely audible over the din of the party. “You’re the one was wasn’t paying attention.”  
I begin to smile, but pull back. “What about Delly?” He can’t seriously be hitting on my while Delly is off saving people.

Peeta steps back, clearly confused. “What about Delly?”

“Isn’t she your girlfriend?” I ask, folding my arms across my chest.

Peeta starts to laugh. “Delly is not my girlfriend. She’s dating a doctor at the hospital where she works.”

“Oh,” is all I can say.

“Yeah,” Peeta says nodding, and steps closer again. 

My back is against the wall as I look up into those lovely blue eyes of his, wondering why it has taken us this long to come to this. 

When all of a sudden Madge’s voice can be heard over the crowd. “Hi, everyone,” she says as Peeta steps back again, but then joins me against the wall, leaning into my side. I feel his body heat through both of our sweaters and it makes me shiver. I look up at Peeta and he smiles down at me. I have to look away. My cheeks are burning up as I turn to watch Madge on the stage. “Thank you all for coming to our first annual Ugly Christmas Sweater party,” she says. She goes on to talk about how excited she is for the New Year, but I don’t really hear any of it as Peeta takes my hand in his.

“Now it’s time to draw the winners of the Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest,” she says, “To be fair, we had the staff vote, so there was no favoritism or ballot stuffing.” This gets a lot of laughs. I guess it must have happened in the past.

“First up, Most Original Sweater goes to…” she trails off as she opens the folded paper with the winner’s name on it, “Thom Davis, head of our maintenance department.”

A spotlight shines in the crowd and the man named Thom heads up to the stage and collects an envelope from Madge. He shows off his sweater with a snow plow and salt truck covered in blinking lights to a large applause. He thanks his wife Leevy for making it for him then heads back over to her.

Once the applause dies down Madge says, “Next up, the Ugliest Christmas Sweater goes to…” she pauses again to open up the folded paper, “Oh, my assistant Flavius Delacroix. Flavius come on up here.” 

Bursts of laughter fill the room the spotlight shines on a man with orange hair heads up to the stage. His corkscrew curls bounce as he makes his way through the crowd. When he turns around his sweater appears to have a small tree attached to the front decorated with tinsel and ornaments. It is quite the monstrosity. Madge hands him an envelope and he raises his hands in the air in triumph and the group he was with cheers him on. The applause dies down as he makes his way back into the crowd. 

I turn back to Peeta when Madge begins to speak again. “Next up, Cutest Couples’ Sweaters,” she says. “And the winners are…” She trails off, but I’m suddenly blinded by a spotlight shining down on us. “Katniss and Peeta!” 

The crowd cheers, and I’m dumbfounded. Peeta squeezes my hand and tugs me through the crowd up to the stage. Madge hands me an envelope as I try to tell her it’s a mistake, we’re not together, but Peeta raises our linked hands up into the air in victory and the crowd eats it up, cheering for us.

After the cheers die down, I try to tug Peeta back off of the stage, but Madge points up and says, “Looks like you two are under the mistletoe. You know what that means.” I look up, and sure enough, there’s a bough of what’s probably real mistletoe hanging by a red ribbon.

The crowd begins to chant, “Kiss, kiss, kiss.” I turn to Peeta and he whisper, “One time, for the audience?”

I can see in his eyes he would never hurt me, so I nod and he pulls me in. I wish I could pull the shutters and block out the crowd on our first kiss. Our lips meet and a warmth fill my chest that I have never felt before. Peeta pulls away too soon and leans his forehead on mine. I’m sure my smile matches his. I want another kiss, but I don’t get it. 

Peeta pulls me away from the stage and I barely hear the crowd cheering as he leads me through the doors into a hallway just off the foyer for some privacy. Once we’re alone he asks me, “Is there anything I need to apologize for?”

I shake my head no, and Peeta smiles as I pull him down for another kiss.

I hear a little bit of noise behind us, but I’m too wrapped up in Peeta to care anymore.

“Did we miss much of the party?” Delly asks as she and Prim hand their coats over to the attendant at the door. 

“Almost over, I’m afraid,” the attendant tells her as another walks up with a tray of champagne. 

They each take a glass and head toward the ballroom. Both are startled to see Katniss and Peeta embraced in a passionate kiss just down the corridor.  
“You know, I was hoping to get those two together,” Delly say, “Guess my work is already done.”

She and Prim clink their glasses together in celebration and head into the party together, leaving Katniss and Peeta to their privacy.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas, mega-aulover. I hope you enjoy your gift. It strayed a little from your summary.


End file.
